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David and Lynn Bryant’s “living hell”, as they call it, began four years ago with a note pushed through the letterbox of their home.

Addressed to Mr Bryant, the letter began: “Dave, its Danny Day. 35 yrs ago I used to collect the glasses in the Legion and I am the same one that you ... played darts with in the fire station (remember!) At 6 o’clock tonight, I am going to the police station to report what went on and at 7 to the national papers. I think it is time you and me had a chat.”

The letter, obtained by The Telegraph, concluded: “One way or another you will pay for what you done.”

His conviction was quashed last week by the Court of Appeal and he was freed from prison – but only after detective work led by his wife showed that his alleged victim was a fantasist.

Speaking exclusively to The Telegraph, Mr Bryant, now 66, and his wife Lynn, 53, have told of their determination to get the conviction overturned.

“We made a conscious decision to stay strong,” said Mrs Bryant, recalling the day her husband was jailed in January 2014. “We were not going to let this man beat us. I continued to fight to get Dave cleared because it was so wrong. The support has been unwavering.”

Mrs Bryant assembled a team of friends, lawyers and private investigators, who did the job that detectives failed to do: they showed that Danny Day, who went to the police hours after delivering the letter in October 2012, was a serial liar who had sought medical help for his condition.

Mr Day, who waived his right to anonymity as the alleged victim of a sexual assault, accused Mr Bryant, a decorated former fire chief and freeman of his home town of Christchurch, in Dorset, of raping him at the local fire station some 35 years earlier when Mr Day was about 14.

“Danny Day is an evil man,” said Mrs Bryant, who was at school with him. “He was after the money.”

The Bryants are convinced Mr Day made the false claims to extort money. Mr Day, who is understood to have received about £50,000 as a victim of crime through the taxpayer-funded Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, after the trial began a £200,000 civil claim against the Bryants and Dorset County Council.

Mr Day, now aged 53 and living in Bromley, Kent, had been the bottle washer in the Royal British Legion bar in Christchurch where he had grown up in the Seventies and where local firemen would regularly drink.

Mr Day would claim he had been raped over a pool table by Mr Bryant and another fireman, Denis Goodman, who is no longer alive, on an unspecified date between 1976 and 1978.

Danny Day is an evil man. He was after the moneyLynn Bryant

Mr Day had come forward in the wake of the uproar over Jimmy Savile, the BBC presenter and serial paedophile who escaped prosecution during his lifetime.

“This could happen to any decent citizen,” said Mr Bryant. “That is the frightening thing about it. Somebody has made an absolutely ludicrous allegation and the police have run with it.”

Mr Bryant was charged in 2013 with buggery, despite his accuser having no corroborating evidence for his claims. Police had failed to obtain medical records that showed Mr Day had repeatedly sought treatment from his GP for being a “chronic liar” over a 10-year period between 2000 and 2010.

Mrs Bryant also discovered the police had been working off old plans for the fire station. These showed a different layout that did not tally with Mr Day’s testimony. The pool table, where Mr Day claimed he was pinned down and raped, was not bought until 1992.

But at a short trial just before Christmas 2013, Mr Bryant was found guilty by a majority verdict and jailed.

Lynn and Dave Bryant

Mr Day then began his civil action, claiming aggravated damages because he said his career as a champion boxer had been cut short by the trauma. He claimed he had been selected for the British boxing team at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 but had quit the team because of his fear that Mr Bryant would recognise him on television.

Mrs Bryant’s investigators discovered that Mr Day’s claims were lies, while lawyers demanded to see Mr Day’s medical records, showing a history of mental illness. A witness statement, corroborating Mr Day’s claims of a boxing career, had been written by Mr Day and signed by a friend, who admitted the claims in it were false.

The Bryants are calling for police to investigate Mr Day and his friend for perverting the course of justice or for perjury. Mr Bryant said: “Dorset [police] didn’t do a proper job. Their mindset was, if a victim comes forward they are to be believed.”

Mrs Bryant said: “Dorset police have never apologised. Now I wouldn’t even expect it.”

A spokesman for Dorset police said: “Dorset Police takes allegations of this nature very seriously and conducted a very thorough and detailed investigation. The findings of the investigation were passed on to the Crown Prosecution Service who chose to prosecute.

“We are yet to receive formal notification of the ruling from the Court of Appeal. When this is received we will consider the findings in full.”